


Whipped Cream Cappuccino

by Thene



Category: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII
Genre: Coffee Shops, F/F, Girls with Guns, Humor, Online Dating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-07-10
Packaged: 2017-11-09 14:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/456412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thene/pseuds/Thene
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bringing a loaded gun to a first date would have been awfully rude.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Whipped Cream Cappuccino

**Author's Note:**

  * For [irishais](https://archiveofourown.org/users/irishais/gifts).



"- and then they just throw more paperwork at me," Elena sighed. "It's not all bad, though. At least I get to travel for work sometimes."

"Oh, that's awesome." Quistis - Elena was still fitting her lips around the syllables, giddy and stung from the gentle correction earlier, _Kwiss-tiss_ not _Kwiss-tees_ , after she'd shown up with butterflies in her stomach and a folded printout of that delightful email in her hands - sipped elegantly from her huge mug of coffee, licking whipped cream off her lips with improbable grace. She was even cuter than her photo. Younger than Elena and with perfect makeup, and a body that sure didn't look like it belonged to a whipped cream kind of girl - Elena felt excited and intimidated all at once, and each flutter of those long mascaraed eyelashes made her melt a little more.

She was forgetting her manners, she realised. And babbling. Lots of babbling, possibly on topics that she'd do better to avoid. It was her day-job that had driven her to an internet dating site in the first place - most Midgar girls baulked at the sight of the uniform. Even after setting up a KupoSiren profile, no one had messaged her for months and she'd wondered if calling herself 'TurkishDelight' had been a mistake, but then 'MsPink' had sent a glowing paen about her hairstyle and her taste in pop music and a polite solicitation for a date at a high-end Deling City coffee-bar. It had taken all Elena's willpower to not jump on the next train north! Ms Pink's profile had been new and fairly sparse, but that just seemed to reflect her elegant, fashionable manners. Right? It was weird, though, telling so much to someone she knew so little about. "Um," she tried, "So what's your job like?"

"Oh, me? I'm, ah, a combat instructor." Quistis smiled, and Elena nodded and looked over her body with this insight in mind; there was a lot of strength in that trim figure, and her eyes traced their way up from the hands that held that decadently large coffeecup; the right forearm was notably thicker than the left. Some kind of melee weapon teacher, obviously.

"A combat instructor. That sounds like a great job to have, I mean, in these tough times." With Shinra fomenting unrest in so many corners of the world, there was a lot of demand for combat training. "You should give me lessons sometime!"

Now there was an idea for their next date. At a Shinra private gym, lots of excuses to touch and admire and maybe a shower together afterwards - Elena crossed her legs delicately, teetering on the high barstool. "Sure," said Quistis. "Have you had any weapons training?"

What to say, what to say? Elena didn't want to give away too much, but also didn't want to play down the skills she was so proud of. "I, uh, I went to a lot of self defence classes. For my job. To keep safe when I'm travelling, I mean. And I learned to shoot and they told me I was a natural." That would do it. Quistis didn't look like a martial artist, and it was easy for Elena to shrug off being the Turks' top crack shot as just being part of her natural brilliance because that was true anyway, right? 

Quistis tilted her head inquisitively. Inquisitive Quistis. Elena liked that one. "So do you carry a gun?"

Elena very deliberately didn't reach into the jacket thrown over the back of her stool. Or even look at it. It had been silly to take it off, but it was _awfully_ warm in here and she figured she should be showing off her designer shirtsleeves with the cute white buttons running up to the elbow. "Sometimes I do," she replied noncommittally. "A girl's gotta take care of herself, right?"

"Absolutely. It's good to know that you've got a bit of extra security in case something happens." Quistis lifted her cup with one elegant hand twined about the handle, and her knees brushed Elena's. Their stools seemed to have been getting closer and closer together, and as Quistis set her cup down again she stretched out in a delicate little yawn, and rested one hand on the short back of Elena's seat. Just over her coat. She felt an icepick heel clank against the feet of her stool. How cosy. This was going way better than any date she'd ever been on...

...Elena felt a lump of suspicion gather in her stomach.

 

Quistis smiled at her blushing, winsome target. This was going great. Selphie's intel crawler had found Elena's KupoSiren profile a week ago, and after crafting her own profile and a flattering introductory message, Quistis had spent all week letting Rinoa teach her how to flirt like a pro. The look on Elena's face had said _hook, line, sinker_ since the moment Quistis had teetered through the door on a new pair of heels.

It was almost a pity it wasn't a real date. Elena was a beautiful woman with great taste in suits, and her awkward posturing was strangely endearing - Quistis was surprised that a high-ranking Shinra operative was acting so unconfident, but perhaps she shouldn't have been. Surveillance hadn't come up with much on Elena's lovelife, only a few evening visits to Upper Plate rezu bars that inevitably ended with a forlorn Elena walking home alone.

Showing off her charms wasn't the goal of the operation, though. Quistis had noticed the bulge of the pistol in Elena's jacket as soon as she walked through the door, right where Irvine had told her it would be; it was a hot summer day, and she'd disabled the café's central AC with a well-placed Thundara before coming in. She'd urged Elena to order the Chili Chocolate Coffee Special, and it took three sips of that to get the jacket off her and the gun with it.

Now, all she had to do was hope that Elena hadn't brought any other surprise presents.

She felt the weight of her own gun holding her purse down on her lap, its straps twined loosely around one arm - not the same as feeling her whip curled against her, but a gun in a bag was a lot less conspicuous in public. She rested her hand lightly on the back of Elena's chair, and tried to find a more neutral line of conversation. "I wish I got to travel more. I'd love to see Midgar, and all the other places that came out of time compression."

"Midgar's a dump," said Elena. It was, Quistis privately agreed, but it was a pretty dump and some of the food was amazing. "I just hope I get to go to Esthar soon. Sh - um, my employers, they said they'd send a recon, I mean, a _research_ team there, and I'd love to study all the new technology."

Quistis put a hand to her chin and nodded, and put on her best smile. "I heard the salt lake is beautiful too. We should go there together."

"T - together?" 

Elena looked flustered. _That's right. Keep looking at my face. Eyes on my right hand. Take it easy with me._ "Sure, why not? I've got enough saved up for a vacation, and I've been itching to go since they re-opened the rail lines last year." She slipped her left hand into the folds of the jacket, and eased the hard mass of the pistol out of its holster. _Yes!_

What next? Elena was blushing bright pink, and she looked thoughtful and a little dreamy - and then her eyes narrowed a little. "This is all moving so fast, I don't even know what to think," she said cautiously. 

_Damn._ Too bold. Quistis laid her arm down and drummed it on the table, trying to keep Elena's full attention as far away from the gun as possible. "No pressure, hey? I just want to get to know you better. You're so..." _So obviously a kettle of poorly-kept professional secrets, so proud of being a Turk and so awkward about it?_ "So beautiful," she settled for, because it was true. "Do you want to try my caramel-flavoured whipped cream cappuccino?"

Elena nodded slowly. "Sure." Quistis raised the cup in one hand, and Elena met it with one of her own, fingers twining together as she took a long sip. As the melting cream and the caramel syrup did their work, Elena's eyes closed to slits, and Quistis quickly slipped the gun under the table and into her bag.

It was a miniature double-action pistol, and from the feel of it it could easily be the same make as the one she'd brought herself. She settled it alongside its fellow, and tried hefting it slightly with a more relaxed grip than she'd dared use before; judging from the weight, the magazine was mostly empty, possibly completely unloaded. _Possibly._ Would Elena really have unloaded her gun before a date? Wary of making her extra burden obvious, Quistis had placed only two bullets in her own little handcannon; a full magazine would have been heavier than the gun itself.

Great, so now she had to keep tabs on which gun was which.

"That was delicious," said Elena, but she was frowning slightly. "Would you like to try mine?"

Quistis could hardly refuse. She smiled, and Elena gave her a sudden smirk in return. Oh Hyne, had she blown it? Had Elena seen her take the gun? What to do? She could say it was just a prank, but by the time she got a word in she'd already have a fight on her hands, and Elena was an expert martial artist.

 _Oh, screw_ , she thought, and reached for Elena's cup.

 

Something was up. With her dating luck, Elena should have known it from the start. She swallowed her disappointment, and found it tasted like caramel and lipstick. The _one_ time she got a date with someone who wasn't terrified of her because she was a Turk, and now that someone was acting for all the world like an enemy agent.

It didn't seem fair.

She nonchalantly folded her arms, and snuck one hand back to tug on her jacket to test its weight. Goddamnit, so Quistis had taken her gun. Alright, so the magazine was empty - bringing a loaded gun to a first date would have been awfully rude - but it was the principle of the matter. Having a gun to point under someone's chin while she told them what the Shinra was going to do to them and their entire hometown if they didn't cooperate was an important part of Elena's lifestyle, and not one she'd happily relinquish to a grabby girlfriend.

She unfolded her arms, still forcing herself to be casual, and held Quistis's eyes as she drank down a mouthful of the (very good, even by Elena's standards) Chili Chocolate Coffee Special. She couldn't see Quistis's other hand. It was a risk, but she didn't have much alternative but to take it - she reached blindly under the table, and put one hand over Quistis's thigh.

"Oooh," gasped Quistis, and her hand shook, spilling coffee all over the table.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" Elena said crisply, and reached for her napkin.

"No, I'm sorry. That was some damn fine coffee. It's on me, alright?" Quistis grabbed her own napkin and patted her spattered face, seemingly flustered. A layer of makeup came away, and she sighed at the tissue in a show of frustration.

There was a gun wedged between Elena's knees.

 

Quistis rubbed her face with one hand and rummaged in her purse with the other. Only one gun.

 _Well, this is is. I blew it. She knows. I get two shots if I'm lucky and no chance to choose when I take them, and she's a Hyne-damned Turk so has no compunctions against killing her enemies in public._ She threw down her napkin and fumbled with the gun, trying to remember the feel of those two precious bullets. Bungling a routine contract killing? She could feel her SeeD rank dropping, and her paycheck with it.

"Say, let me clean that up for you - did you want some more coffee?"

Elena blinked. Quistis glanced up at the waitress - a highschool-age girl in a pencil skirt and a striped blouse, reaching over to wipe their messy table down with a cloth. "Um," said Elena, "No thanks. Everything's fine."

"I could move you to a clean table -"

"It's fine!" said Quistis in an almost-squeak. "We're doing great. I love this place, don't you?"

Elena smiled broadly, and Quistis heard the _click_ of a gun being cocked. The waitress jumped, confused.

Quistis rattled her heels against the stool again, and lifted the gun out of her bag an inch at a time. _Click._ The waitress backed away, hopefully to find something less dangerous to do.

"That was some really good coffee," Elena sighed.

"Yeah," she agreed. "A friend took me here once and since then I've come by every time I'm in town." _Just keep her talking._ She thumbed the alarm on her SeeD wristband. Selphie wasn't far away, and Rinoa would be able to help out if this caused an messy public incident. Elena's hands were both under the table, and she heard a rapid _taptaptap_ and remembered Selphie saying that Turks used PDA communications. "I was going to tell you to try the blueberry pie but..."

Elena looked genuinely hurt. "I see. You had it all planned out." Quistis nodded, and groped her left hand forward. Maybe she could wrench the gun out of Elena's hand -

Quistis felt the soft impact of a hand on her gunbarrel and yanked it back up to her hip. She tried to breathe steady. Tried to gauge the weight and determine if she held two nine-millimetre pulse rounds or an empty chamber. "Yes, actually. I got us tickets to _Death of the Sorceress_ this evening. I was going to surprise you."

"You did surprise me."

"Well, I'm sorry -"

"A job's a job. But if I could get one damn date with someone who wasn't trying to kill me..." Elena sighed heavily, and Quistis thought she was about to cry. She stole a glance at the glass-plated storefront. Was that a bobbing brown head and yellow dungarees? Was that a guy in a suit running full-tilt down the avenue?

She slipped forward on her stool, and put one pointed toe firmly on the floor, ready to move. Was it Selphie? It was Selphie. Halfway through the door with a Turk right behind her -

 

Elena threw herself off her stool and fired and felt the hammer hit air. She had a split-second to hear Quistis's gun going off and the glass behind her shatter before they both hit the floor, and she rolled up inside a second and slammed the useless gun in her hand straight for Quistis's head. Quistis moved a moment too soon, arms thrown up defensively, and Elena was trying to hit her again when she felt a blast of magic burn the air from her throat. She stumbled, and felt the table hit the floor beside her - and she yelped as Quistis's coffee spilt over her foot.

She could hear screaming and running and someone yelling _'Booyaka!_ ', and saw a scrape of sparks as a nightstick hit a nunchuck chain. Another flash, and a bullet grazed Reno's jacket. Elena launched herself at Quistis again, only to bruise her fists on some bullshit protective spell. The girl in yellow threw a whip, and Quistis caught it like the nasty barbed thing belonged in her manicured hand.

Elena shook the whipped cream off her foot. Combat Instructor Quistis wanted a fight? The Turks could bring a fight. And then some.

 

Elena held the icepack to her head and sulked as Reno went over her suit and hair, pulling bits of broken glass and china out with a pair of tweezers. "What's so sad?" he asked, and pulled a face at her. "I showed up when you needed me, didn't I? We all got a sweet hour-long brawl out of it, and old General Caraway was a real good sport about the whole international incident side of things. And now we know about the assassination contract we can go cut a deal with AVALANCHE to call it off. So what the hell's the matter? Come on, Elena. I'll even take you back there when they reopen next year. I wanna try the Carob Nut Cherry Mocha."

"I ruined my suit and I didn't even get her phone number," she sighed. "This is so damn typical."

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was; _"Quistis and Elena sit down to coffee. One is there to kill the other, and neither knows who's got the loaded gun."_ Thank you, irishais, I enjoyed writing this tremendously much.


End file.
